British supermarket launches packaging-free trial

A store in Oxford is now offering refillable options for products such as alcohol, rice and cleaning materials.

British supermarket Waitrose has taken a step forward to realise its vision of environmentally conscious shopping. It is offering its customers in Oxford the opportunity to buy food and drink products that are completely free of packaging as part of a new ground-breaking trial.

“This test has potential to shape how people might shop with us in the future so it will be fascinating to see which concepts our customers have an appetite for,” said Waitrose’s Tor Harris to The Guardian.

Customers will be able to bring their own containers and to fill them with a range of items such as pasta, cleaning products and even alcohol. Waitrose is one of the first major UK supermarkets to trial this new dispensers system.

The trial will go on for a few weeks in a push to eliminate unnecessary plastic and packaging and hundreds of products have been removed from their packaging.

Shoppers will also experience a change at the till with prices for those items being typically 15% cheaper than the packaged alternatives.